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03 February, 2012

Hershey's Air Delight Chocolate

If I wanted to write a three-word review of Hershey's new Air Delight chocolate, I would just type "Feh. Skip it." But as it turns out, I actually have something to say about this stuff, so here goes.

1. It's a shitty trick designed to get consumers to buy air at chocolate prices. Hershey could have done this years ago if they really wanted to - Nestle has been selling the Aero Bar in Europe for years - but with the lousy economy putting the squeeze on profits, I guess a bigger-looking bar that actually contains less chocolate was irresistible to the cocoa bean counters.

2. The texture is weird. Air Delight chocolate shatters into a grainy lattice when it is bitten and chewed (although I admit it soon melts down to regular Hershey chocolate consistency. It's just that initial chomp that kinda skeeves me out.)

3. When all is said and done, it's still made of Hershey chocolate. When I was a kid and the only kind of chocolate I'd ever tasted came from Hershey, I liked it well enough. But since then, I've tasted chocolate made all over the world, and there is really no comparison between a Hershey bar and chocolate made in Germany, Belgium, Italy, or Switzerland. Not only does the higher cocoa butter content in good chocolate make it melt in the mouth more smoothly than Hershey, but Hershey has a decidedly "sour" back taste that is almost cheesy. Try a side-by-side comparison with a Hershey bar and some inexpensive German-made chocolate from ALDI. You'll be amazed.

I first tried this via the polish brand Wawel, which has an aerated very dark chocolate bar. The aeration makes it melt more quickly in your mouth (sometimes a problem with very high-cocoa chocolates.) I can't find it anywhere online, but I recommend it.

I think we have some Hershey bars aging somewhere deep in our top cupboard. Some kind of 12 pack box from a random campout from which they were orphaned. I see them from year to year cozied up against a can chocolate soda I picked up at an asian supermarket. I always hesitate tossing them. "That's our emergency chocolate!", I tell my wife. "In case of nuclear war we can take it out and hurl it at attacking atomic zombies!"

Dave, I agree with the initial unpleasant graininess but will admit to caving and purchasing two with a bogo coupon. Oddly enough, I really liked a large $1 chocolate bar with almonds that I saw by the Family Dollar checkout; it was quite good, but I threw the wrapper--I'll check it out when I go again. Lynhttp://onefoodietoanother.blogspot.comhttp://everyonesfavoriterecipes.blogspot.comhttp://anoldcookbookcollector.blogspot.com

I like 'em. Get bored with regular chocolate mouth-feel and welcomed the slight difference. Although the whiff of a smelly wrapper on one of these kinda reminded me of a vague fart-smell. But then again, I'm faaaaar from picky or even discerning. I would eat one again.

Sally: I'm not the Dave that owns this blog. On the National Cooking Echo we are known as Clean Dave and Dirty Dave. We are also separated by half a continent in distance. I buy a few bars of the 70% Moser-Roth nearly every time I visit one of my local ALDI stores. It doesn't even upset my glucose meter that all diabetics are tied to.

I have the name of the large $1 chocolate bar that I got at the Family Dollar store. It is a HAMLET CHOCOLATES brand that comes in a 5.3 oz. size with plain, almond, and crispy, and they are good! Lynhttp://onefoodietoanother.blogspot.comhttp://everyonesfavoriterecipes.blogspot.comhttp://anoldcookbookcollector.blogspot.com

Aero bars are super popular in Canada.. I didn't know Hershey had come out with this equivalent. I actually really like Aero and Aero-Mint bars. True you are getting less chocolate, but they do melt deliciously.

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